Only when the tide goes out do you discover who's swimming naked.
(Warren E. Buffett)

I think the answer is we all are swimming naked now, even the plutocrats.

What if the “lumpenproleteriat” decided it was time for piano wire and meat hooks and took the elevator up to the corporate penthouse suite? No, it would not be glorious, romantic or bring about the American utopia, anything but. Yet what are we stumbling toward right now?

In Michael Moore's latest movie he has a clip of Stephen Moore (no relation), one of the lobotomized members of the Wall Street Journal's editorial board, informing us that well, er, it isn't really democracy he is interested in, perhaps it's well justice, yes, justice for the rabble—I mean the people, that's it. Those people need more scraps to keep them happy and content.

Well, I'm not exactly quoting Mr. Stephen Moore of The Wall Street Journal of course. It is his "drift" I'm most interested in; his moment of honest feelings. Let 'em eat cake.

Historians have said that the French revolution took place when its aristocracy ceased to have any function to perform. Perhaps. The British ruling class just finally got tired by the beginning of the 20th century. They did a superb job in the 19th century of building an empire and they actually believed in duty and honor and noblesse oblige.

Robert Scheer has an interesting piece on our Afghanistan morass. What in the devil is our purpose there? Of course another general wants a lot more troops. It's always more boots-on-the-ground. Is our reason not to ask why? Do we know why? How many schools, hospitals could we build in America? Could we imagine a world class health system? But will we have to fight them in Kansas City?

Senator John McCain says we have to “win” in Afghanistan. He said we “lost” Viet Nam. I wonder if John McCain ever considered the possibility that he and the rest of America might not have had any business being in Viet Nam in the first place?

Did the Gulf of Tonkin resolution in 1965 make Lyndon Johnson a war criminal? George Washington warned against standing armies and we certainly remember what Dwight Eisenhower said about the convergence of the military and the defense industry.

If Afghanistan is truly so important to global “freedom,” then possibly we need to all be planting “victory” gardens, increasing gasoline taxes, starting a new Manhattan alternative energy project, leaving our personal vehicles home once a week, turning our lights off by 10 o'clock every night, subjecting corporate executives and their corporations to harsh criminal prosecution for tax avoidance, and requiring a period of public service for everyone between the ages of 18 and 25, no exception.

And of course the Congress, as a symbolic gesture, should take a 20 percent pay cut and terminate its magnificent tax supported health care plan. Anyway, see A War of Absurdity.